u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e r a i l u n i v e r s e
As with the new James Webb telescope, alius focus on new
approaches and technologies to better and deeply analyse
the universe of the railway.
Innovative methodologies, a unique expertise and state-of-the-art tools permit to understand the railway dynamics, efficiently predict the future operations and deliver attractive solutions for high-performing rail services.
Latest news
11/2022 alius and 6-t on the front page of the Tribune de Genève
alius et 6-t, the Geneva mobility office, prepared a memo about the future of the railway in Geneva for the cantonal Transport Commission. The aim of this document is not to reconsider the desirable and indispensable deployment of rail services or the vision of a new diametral, but to open up the field of reflection and the spectrum of possibilities. Indeed, given the irreversible consequences that the Canton's current concept could have on the future configuration of the agglomeration's rail network, we feel it is important and useful to enrich the reflections before any future decisions are taken in this area with additional analytical elements. In our opinion, the concept proposed by the Canton has significant weaknesses which we summarise in 4 points:
1) It is not deployed in the real radius of pertinence of the railway, i.e. for regional journeys of more than 5 km for which the urban public transport service (bus and tram) is no longer competitive in terms of travel time or comfort compared to the private car;;
2) It does not provide an appropriate and pertinent solution to the major challenges for modal shift, which are primarily on the scale of the cross-border agglomeration and in particular in the French part ;
3) It does not meet the most important current and future needs in terms of mobility needs;
4) Due to its weaknesses, as well as other aspects of the project, we believe that there is a strong risk that it will not be retained in the next PRODES development stage.
In view of these weaknesses, we suggest that a real and ambitious regional rail strategy (the cross-border rail hub) should be drawn up now, and that a cantonal concept should be outlined which would really be able to serve this strategy. These proposals are the subject of part 5 of the memo.
A more complete summary is available in French on our partner's webpage 6-7 (click here to access it)
The original document can be downloaded by clicking here
Click here to read the Tribune de Genève editorial (in French)
o u r c l i e n t s
Rete Tram Treno del Luganese
An agency of Gouvernement of Ontario
Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi
s o m e p r o j e c t s
RER C in Paris
Line C is the largest and most complex network of commuter services in Paris and punctuality is a critical factor for the daily operation. The objective of the project is to identify the weakness and to verify, with the aid of a dynamic simulation , possible scenarios to increase the robustness of the timetable.
Lyon rail node
The node of Lyon is the most complex of the entire France rail network.
The main goal for setting up this very big dynamic simulation model, which stretches from St Etienne to Geneva and Grenoble, is to have for the first time a complete modelisation taking in account all the operational constraints and details.
Paris-Toulouse
On the long line Paris-Orleans-Limoges-Toulouse there are overlapping of national, regional and local rail service and the state of the infrastructure implies a very dense modernization plan. This analysis have to propose solutions to give more robustness to the operations and increase punctuality.
RER D in Paris
The RER D connects the north and the south of Paris passing through the heart of the city. It is the longest RER line by distance and one of the busiest, carrying up to 615,000 passengers and operating 466 trains each day. We supports in the analysis of operations, evaluation of new service concent and improvement measures.
Paris Gare de Lyon
Gare de Lyon is the second largest and busiest station in Paris, and the terminal of the TGV services to southern France. Through a series of improvements, the capacity of the station will be increase to accomodate the higher number of service.
Using its combination of analysis and stochastic simulation, we evaluated the effective potentials of the future station, as well as the benefits of each proposed investment.
CDG Express
CDG Express will be the new fast connection between the airport Charles de Gaulle and the Paris city center. With an effective stochastic simulation of several perturbation and delay scenarios it was possible to verify the interactions between this new services, the RER B and the other regional trains. And also to estimate the future punctuality of CDG Express and propose possible mesures to improve the futureoperations.
Tram-train Lugano
The existing Lugano-Ponte Tresa narrow-gauge single-track line will be transformed in tram line and extended to the city center of Lugano trought a new tunnel via the main railway station. We analized the proposed infrastructure layout considering the expected service frequency, optimised the operations and proposed many suggestion to increase the efficiency and the ponctuality.
EOLE extension
In a few years the RER E will be extended form St Lazare to la Defense becoming a new rail service across Paris. With an accurate probabilistic simulation (that included also the entire Gare de l’Est and St Lazare) it was possible to optimise the integration of the new infrastructure and signalling system CBTC in the existing network in the north and the east of Paris.
Basel Masterplan
Developement of the agglomeration rail network and services (service concept, evaluation of new lines, creation of new infrastructures, improvement of the existing rail topology, ...).
Optimisation STEP 2035
Analysis and identification of possible optimisation for the next Swiss rail national investment step in 2035 (analisis of the Swiss Federal Railways propositions and neutralevaluation).
o u r p h i l o s o p h y a n d o u r s e r v i c e s
alius is the latin word meaning "other" or "something else". the name alius consulting reflect the philosophy of the company: combine in an innovative way a strong consulting and management experience with a deep technical knowledge in rail system to ensure the client the best result and added value
consulting
Listening and understanding is the
best way to support you and our passion for rail isyour guarantee
analising
Because a well analised
and understood problem is a
problem already half solved
planning
A complete vision of the railway system allows to quickly identify
the most effective solutions
simulating
In the era of big data, simulation is now the only effective way of dealing with problems linked to the rail system.
our story
Giuliano Montanaro received in 1998 the Master of Science MSc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of
Lausanne (Switzerland), with specialization in transportation network planning.
After a first experience in rail freight transport planning he joined in 2001 SMA and Partner AG, a Swiss consulting company European leader in rail transportation, traffic and operation planning based in Zurich. In 2003 he became a member of the Board and in 2009 CEO and Director of the Planning Department. Giuliano Montanaro's experience is founded on numerous successfully realized, directed and supervised regional, national and international rail projects in many European countries.
In 2012 Giuliano Montanaro created his own consulting company, specialized in rail transport and system. The name alius consulting (alius is a latin word meaning "other" or "something else") reflects the philosophy of the company: Combine in an innovative way a strong consulting and management experience with a deep technical knowledge in rail system.
Today alius consulting is specialized in timetable planning, analysis of the operations, performance modelling, timetable robustness evaluation and network design. Using the most performing probabilistic simulation process and tool allow to obtain high quality results with very high added values in a very short time.
Giuliano Montanaro was appointed in 2019 by the Swiss Federal Council member of the Rail Transport Commission RailCom, that ensure a non-discriminatory access to the rail network, and contribute to making Switzerland's rail system competitive.
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